Truth is the beginning of wisdom…

Quotes To Ponder

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse [money, bounty, assistance, gifts] from the public treasury.
- Alexis de Tocqueville

From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
- Alexander Frazer Tytler

Archive for July, 2008

As long as you live in this house, you will follow the rules. When you have your own house, you can make your own rules. In this house we do not have a democracy. I did not campaign to be your parent. You did not vote for me. We are parent and child by the grace of God, and I accept that privilege and awesome responsibility. In accepting it, I have an obligation to perform the role of a parent. I am not your pal. Our ages are too different. We can share many things, but we are not pals. I am your parent. This is 100 times more than what a pal is. I am also your friend, but we are on very different levels. You will do, in this house as I say, and while you may ask questions, you may not question my authority. Please remember that whatever I ask you to do is motivated by L O V E. This will be hard for you to understand until you have a child of your own. Until then, trust in me. With love and utmost sincerity,

Obama is claiming on his campaign website that he possesses “values straight from the Kansas heartland.”

And the Obama campaign recently announced their “Joshua Project” which, according to the Obama campaign, is the “campaign’s outreach to young people of faith. There’s unprecedented energy and excitement for Obama among young evangelicals and Catholics. The Joshua Generation project will tap into that excitement and provide young people of faith opportunities to stand up for their values and move the campaign forward.”

Do not be deceived. Make no mistake. What you are witnessing is the beginning of what will be a coordinated effort by Obama and his allies in the liberal media to fool patriotic Americans into believing that Barack Hussein Obama shares the deeply held values of the people of the United States – values that make this nation great and secure our freedoms.

And before you dismiss this effort, shake your head in disbelief or simply laugh it off, know one thing… IT WILL WORK! It is a masterful political calculation! It has worked in the past and it WILL work again!

Mark DeMoss, a former chief of staff to the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and an advisor to Focus on the Family, Campus Crusade for Christ and Rev. Franklin Graham recently stated: “If one third of white evangelicals voted for Bill Clinton the second time, at the height of Monica Lewinsky mess – that’s a statistic I didn’t believe at first but I double and triple checked it – I would not be surprised if that many or more voted for Barack Obama in this election… I will not be surprised if he gets one third of the evangelical vote. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 40-percent.”

And the Obama camp is NOT JUST TARGETING EVANGELICALS! Obama is targeting ALL patriotic Americans!

Obama Values And Your Taxes…

To paraphrase former-President Ronald Reagan, if it moves, he WILL tax it!

According to CBS News “Obama says he will institute ‘a middle-class tax cut that will provide $1,000 of relief to 95% of workers and their families.’ He also wants to eliminate income taxes for retirees making less than $50,000 per year.”

Remember what happened the last time a Democrat running for the presidency promised a middle-class tax cut?

In his very FIRST campaign ad which aired in January of 1992 Bill Clinton stated: “I’m Bill Clinton and I believe that you deserve more than 30-second ads and vague promises. That’s why I’ve offered a comprehensive plan to get our economy moving again, to take care of our own people, and regain our economic leadership. It starts with a tax cut for the middle class and asks the rich to pay their fair share.”

And he repeated that promise continuously. In September of 1992 he said: “We will lower the tax burden on the middle class.” In October of 1992 he stated, “I will not raise taxes on the middle class.”

But within DAYS of taking office, Clinton reneged on that promise. On nationwide television he said he ‘tried as hard as he could’ but just couldn’t deliver! At least he ‘felt our pain’. You could see the heartfelt agony in his face over breaking that promise!

It only took him a matter of days to decide that he tried as hard as he could… maybe that’s what he meant when he said sometimes you’ve got to “have the courage to quit.”

But amazingly, on January 14, 1993 – suffering from an apparent case of amnesia – he defiantly stated: “From New Hampshire forward, for reasons that absolutely mystified me, the press thought the most important issue in the race was the middle class tax cut. I never did meet any voter who thought that.”

And then it only took him about TWO MONTHS to push the largest tax increase in United States history on the American people through Congress! It was one of his top priorities!

But Barack Hussein Obama is no Bill Clinton you may say. Well, let’s look at what Obama said when it came to taxes while on the campaign trail:

At the Democratic Presidential Debate at Howard University on June 28, 2007, Obama said: “And the Bush tax cuts – people didn’t need them, and they weren’t even asking for them, and that’s why they need to be less, so that we can pay for universal health care and other initiatives.”

In his response to the 2008 State of the Union Address, Obama stated: “[W]e know that at a time of war and economic hardship, the last thing we need is a permanent tax cut for Americans who don’t need them and weren’t even asking for them.”

When questioned on the issue of taxes at the Democratic Presidential Debate in Los Angeles, California on January 30, 2008, Obama proudly boasted: “I’m not bashful about it.” A middle-class tax cut?

And now that you KNOW THE FACTS, it’s vitally important that ALL AMERICANS KNOW that when it comes to raising taxes, Obama DOES NOT share our values.

Obama Values and Gas Prices…

Last week we produced a hard-hitting television ad in which Barack Hussein Obama said in his own words: We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times… and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK…. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.”

In a nutshell, that’s Obama’s solution to the rising price of gasoline at the pump and food at the grocery store and the prospect of your family freezing this winter.

Now what I’m about to say may shock you; BUT THE REAL OBAMA SOLUTION IS A VIABLE SOLUTION. Simply stated, the problem is that we are paying too much for gasoline and food and heat for our homes. And simply stated, there are only TWO possible solutions to the problem:

1) Increase the supply of oil and other energy resources in order to drive the price down so we can consume as much affordable energy as we want – that’s called “freedom” and “self-determination.” It’s what our Founding Fathers meant by “promote the general welfare and secure the blessing of liberty… .”

2) Force a change of lifestyle on the American people. Tax energy and drive the price up so that we have no choice but to consume less; or better yet, give government control over the means of production – that’s called socialism! The price may go up… the supply may go down… but each of us will spend less for food and fuel… PROBLEM SOLVED!

The Obama solution is viable… it’s just not the solution that people want. Obama knows that and his allies in the media know it.

That’s what’s behind his sudden move to the right and we must be prepared to remind ALL AMERICANS where Barack Hussein Obama really stands – in his own words when possible.

Obama Values And YOUR Health Care…

Let’s look at one of Obama’s statements on raising taxes again: “And the Bush tax cuts – people didn’t need them, and they weren’t even asking for them, and that’s why they need to be less, so that we can pay for universal health care and other initiatives reiterated.

Obama his support for universal health care at the Democratic Presidential Debate in Cleveland Ohio on February 26, 2008: “Well, look, I believe in universal health care, as does Sen. Clinton. And the point of the debate, is that Sen. Clinton repeatedly claims that I don’t stand for universal health care. And, you know, for Sen. Clinton to say that, I think, is simply not accurate.”

Kenneth Blackwell, chairman of the Coalition for a Conservative Majority, tells us the following about Barack Hussein Obama’s plan for universal heath care: “He wants the central government to make all of those decisions for you and your family. A massive federal bureaucracy will decide what medical procedures doctors can perform, who qualifies for what treatments, and who can perform what services.”

“The price tag for this bureaucratic colossus is a stunning $800 billion, and that is just for starters. And how will he pay for this? He is going to raise taxes. While some might say that would all come from ‘the rich,’ even a quick glance shows ‘the rich’ cannot provide almost a trillion dollars.”

And just in case you don’t believe universal health care will drive up YOUR taxes tremendously and eradicate the quality of care we’ve come accustomed to receiving in this country, consider the following tidbits about the crown jewel of universal health care; Canada.

According to figures and incidents discussed by J. Patrick Rooney and Dan Perrin in their book, America’s Health Care Crisis Solved

Ninety percent of Canadian heart specialists say they’ve given preferential treatment to patients for non-medical reasons . Among other things, that means bumping them up to the head of the line… their Aunt Grace… their weekend golf partner… the guy who hands them an envelope containing $10,000 in small, unmarked bills. So the system is routinely violated by doctors in Canada…. SO MUCH FOR EQUALITY!

Health-care costs are gobbling up revenues and driving up taxes in the provinces. In 1958, the federal government paid half of the medical bills for Canadians. Today it pays less than one-fourth. In Saskatchewan, for example, health care eats up 40 % of the budget.

Dr. David Gratzer of the Manhattan Institute estimates that health care costs each Canadian worker 21 cents out of every dollar earned That would come to over $10,000.00 for a person making $50,000 per year and that’s above and beyond the other taxes you pay.

Is this how you see your future? Is this what you want? You’re not powerless. You can do something about it!

Obama Values And Christian Values…

Since Obama is touting his “Christian faith,” it’s only fair to talk about it and about where he stands on some of the moral and social issues of the day!

It is only reasonable to assume that any man who talks about his “Christian faith” should at least attempt to be sincere in his faith. Anything less than sincerity would clearly indicate a defect in character… and, yes, CHARACTER DOES COUNT!

The Internet publication, WorldNetDaily.com, quotes conservative columnist Cal Thomas and sums it up quite well: “Besides the apparent conflict between Obama’s support for abortion and Christian beliefs, Thomas said there are other legitimate questions that remain unanswered by the Obama campaign regarding the senator’s claim to be a Christian.”

“‘Obama has declared himself a committed Christian. He can call himself anything he likes, but there are certain markers among the evangelicals he is courting that one must meet in order to qualify for that label,’ Thomas said.

“He cites Obama’s expressed belief in ‘many paths to the same place.’

“‘There is a clear requirement for one to qualify as a Christian and Obama doesn’t meet that requirement. One cannot deny central tenets of the Christian faith, including the deity and uniqueness of Christ as the sole mediator between God and man and be a Christian. Such people do have a label applied to them in Scripture. They are called ‘false prophets,’ Thomas wrote.”

But that’s not all:

Barack Obama received a 100% rating from NARAL in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

In 1997, while serving in the Illinois State Legislature, Obama voted AGAINST SB 230, a bill which would have banned the horrid practice of partial birth abortion – a “procedure” so barbaric that it is even opposed by people who are not pro-life.

While serving in the United States Senate, Obama voted against the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (S.403), a bill designed to prevent minors from being taken across state lines without the consent of the parents to have an abortion in circumvention of the laws of 45 states which require parental consent or notification in order for a minor to have an abortion (i.e. that means an adult male would not be able to transport the teen-age girl he impregnated across state lines for a ‘hush-hush abortion’ to cover his crimes)

In 2002, while serving in the Illinois State Legislature, Obama voted “No” on the Born Alive Infant Protection Package (SB 1661), a bill which would create a cause of action against a physician if a child is born alive after an attempted abortion and the physician, harms, neglects or fails to provide medical care for the child.

In 2003, Obama voted “Yes” on legislation supported by both Planned Parenthood and the ACLU that would allow so-called “age appropriate” sex education to be taught to little children in grade school.

Obama says he possesses “values straight from the Kansas heartland.”

His record indicates he possesses values from the Kansas chapter of the ACLU.

The American people NEED TO KNOW where Barack Hussein Obama really stands. The American people NEED TO KNOW his REAL RECORD.

Remember, the vast majority of Americans DO NOT listen to talk radio or FOX News. The majority of Americans – many of whom do not share Barack Hussein Obama’s extreme “values” still get their news from the liberal media!

And Obama’s allies in the liberal media AREN’T GOING TO EXPOSE OBAMA!

Every American needs to know the REAL BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA!

Barack Hussein Obama will spend millions of dollars in an attempt to make millions of Americans believe that he shares their values, and his allies in the liberal media will back his play every step of the way.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “you can fool some of the people all of the time” and – make no mistake – that is ALL that Obama needs to do for his strategy to succeed. If we don’t take IMMEDIATE ACTION BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA WILL SUCCEED! We can’t let that happen!

Please tell your friends our ExposeObama.com. If this newsletter was forwarded to you and you would like to subscribe please use this link.

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama’s campaign says a satirical New Yorker magazine cover showing the Democratic presidential candidate dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist is “tasteless and offensive.”

The illustration on the issue that hits newsstands Monday, titled “The Politics of Fear” and drawn by Barry Blitt, depicts Barack Obama wearing traditional Muslim garb – sandals, robe and turban – and his wife, Michelle – dressed in camouflage, combat boots and an assault rifle strapped over her shoulder – standing in the Oval Office.

The couple is doing a fist tap in front of a fireplace in which an American flag is burning. Over the mantle hangs a portrait of Osama bin Laden.

“The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. “But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”

A spokeswoman for The New Yorker did not immediately return a call to The Associated Press.

The magazine’s editor, David Remnick, said in a statement to the Daily News in New York that he was surprised by the reaction.

The cover “combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them (the images) for the obvious distortions they are,” he said.

“Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to the absurd,” Remnick said.

Republican John McCain’s campaign spokesman, Tucker Bonds, agreed that the cover was “tasteless and offensive.”

Already the cover was generating controversy on the Internet.

The Huffington Post, a left-leaning blog, said: “Anyone who’s tried to paint Obama as a Muslim, anyone who’s tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their patriotism – well, here’s your image.”

Obama’s Not Exactly’s (Repost)

This is an example of how misinformed the people of America can be. Or, maybe the word is stupid !!! … sorry, if the shoe fits.

IT SHOULD OPEN A LOT OF EYES.

1.) Selma Got Me Born – NOT EXACTLY, your parents felt safe enough to have you in 1961 – Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965. (Google ‘Obama Selma’ for his full March 4, 2007 speech and articles about its various untruths.)

2.) Father Was A Goat Herder – NOT EXACTLY, he was a privileged, well educated youth, who went on to work with the Kenyan Government.

3.) Father Was A Proud Freedom Fighter – NOT EXACTLY, he was part of one of the most corrupt and violent governments Kenya has ever had.

4.) My Family Has Strong Ties To African Freedom – NOT EXACTLY, your cousin Raila Odinga has created mass violence in attempting to overturn a legitimate election in 2007, in Kenya. It is the first widespread violence in decades. The current government is pro-American but Odinga wants to overthrow it and establish Muslim Sharia law. Your half-brother, Abongo Obama, is Odinga’s follower. You interrupted your New Hampshire campaigning to speak to Odinga on the phone. Check out the following link for verification of that….and for more.Obama’s cousin Odinga in Kenya ran for president and tried to get Sharia muslim law in place there. When Odinga lost the elections, his followers have burned Christians’ homes and then burned men, women and children alive in a Christian church where they took shelter.. Obama SUPPORTED his cousin before the election process here started. Google Obama and Odinga and see what you get. No one wants to know the truth.

5.) My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian – NOT EXACTLY, she does her daily Salat prayers at 5am according to her own interviews. Not to mention, Christianity wouldn’t allow her to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man.

6.) My Name is African Swahili – NOT EXACTLY, your name is Arabic and ‘Baraka’ (from which Barack came) means ‘blessed’ in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is Obama.
Barack Hussein Obama is not half black. If elected, he would be the first Arab-American President, not the first black President. Barack Hussein Obama is 50% Caucasian from his mother’s side and 43.75% Arabic and 6.25% African Negro from his father’s side. While Barack Hussein Obama’s father was from Kenya, his father’s family was mainly Arabs.. Barack Hussein Obama’s father was only 12.5% African Negro and 87.5% Arab (his father’s birth certificate even states he’s Arab, not African Negro). From….and for more….go to…..http://www.arcadeathome.com/newsboy.phtml?Barack_Hussein_Obama_-_Arab-American,_only_6.25%25_African

7.) I Never Practiced Islam – NOT EXACTLY, you practiced it daily at school, where you were registered as a Muslim and kept that faith for 31 years, until your wife made you change, so you could run for office.
4-3-08 Article ‘Obama was ‘quite religious in islam” http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60559

8.) My School In Indonesia Was Christian – NOT EXACTLY, you were registered as Muslim there and got in trouble in Koranic Studies for making faces (check your own book).
February 28, 2008. Kristoff from the New York Times a year ago: Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as ‘one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.’ This is just one example of what Pamela is talking about when she says ‘Obama’s narrative is being altered, enhanced and manipulated to whitewash troubling facts.’

9.) I Was Fluent In Indonesian – NOT EXACTLY, not one teacher says you could speak the language.

10.) Because I Lived In Indonesia, I Have More Foreign Experience – NOT EXACTLY, you were there from the ages of 6 to 10, and couldn’t even speak the language. What did you learn, how to study the Koran and watch cartoons.

11.) I Am Stronger On Foreign Affairs – NOT EXACTLY, except for Africa (surprise) and the Middle East (bigger surprise), you have never been anywhere else on the planet and thus have NO experience with our closest allies.

12.) I Blame My Early Drug Use On Ethnic Confusion – NOT EXACTLY, you were quite content in high school to be Barry Obama, no mention of Kenya and no mention of struggle to identify – your classmates said you were just fine.

13.) An Ebony Article Moved Me To Run For Office – NOT EXACTLY, Ebony has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn’t, and never did, exist.

14.) A Life Magazine Article Changed My Outlook On Life – NOT EXACTLY, Life has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn’t, and never did, exist.

15.) I Won’t Run On A National Ticket In ‘08 – NOT EXACTLY, here you are, despite saying, live on TV, that you would not have enough experience by then, and you are all about having experience first.

16.) Voting ‘Present’ is Common In Illinois Senate – NOT EXACTLY, they are common for YOU, but not many others have 130 NO VOTES.

17.) Oops, I Misvoted – NOT EXACTLY, only when caught by church groups and Democrats, did you beg to change your misvote.

18.) I Was A Professor Of Law – NOT EXACTLY, you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.

19.) I Was A Constitutional Lawyer – NOT EXACTLY, you were a senior lecturer ON LEAVE.

20.) Without Me, There Would Be No Ethics Bill – NOT EXACTLY, you didn’t write it, introduce it, change it, or create it.

21.) The Ethics Bill Was Hard To Pass – NOT EXACTLY, it took just 14 days from start to finish.

22.) I Wrote A Tough Nuclear Bill – NOT EXACTLY, your bill was rejected by your own party for its pandering and lack of all regulation – mainly because of your Nuclear donor, Exelon, from which David Axelrod came.

23.) I Have Released My State Records – NOT EXACTLY, as of March, 2008, state bills you sponsored or voted for have yet to be released, exposing all the special interests pork hidden within.

24.) I Took On The Asbestos Altgeld Gardens Mess – NOT EXACTLY, you were part of a large group of people who remedied Altgeld Gardens. You failed to mention anyone else but yourself, in your books.

25.) My Economics Bill Will Help America – NOT EXACTLY, your 111 economic policies were just combined into a proposal which lost 99-0, and even YOU voted against your own bill.

26.) I Have Been A Bold Leader In Illinois – NOT EXACTLY, even your own supporters claim to have not seen BOLD action on your part.

27.) I Passed 26 Of My Own Bills In One Year – NOT EXACTLY, they were not YOUR bills, but rather handed to you, after their creation by a fellow Senator, to assist you in a future bid for higher office.

28.) No One on my campaign contacted Canada about NAFTA – NOT EXACTLY, the Candian Government issued the names and a memo of the conversation your campaign had with them.

29.) I Am Tough On Terrorism – NOT EXACTLY, you missed the Iran Resolution vote on terrorism and your good friend Ali Abunimah supports the destruction off Israel.

30.) I Want All Votes To Count – NOT EXACTLY, you said let the delegates decide.

31.) I Want Americans To Decide – NOT EXACTLY, you prefer caucuses that limit the vote, confuse the voters, force a public vote, and only operate during small windows of time.

32.) I passed 900 Bills in the State Senate – NOT EXACTLY, you passed 26, most of which you didn’t write yourself.

33.) I Believe In Fairness, Not Tactics – NOT EXACTLY, you used tactics to eliminate Alice Palmer from running against you.

34.) I Don’t Take PAC Money – NOT EXACTLY, you take loads of it.

35.) I don’t Have Lobbysists – NOT EXACTLY, you have over 47 lobbyists, and counting.

36.) My Campaign Had Nothing To Do With The 1984 Ad – NOT EXACTLY, your own campaign worker made the ad on his Apple in one afternoon.

37.) I Have Always Been Against Iraq – NOT EXACTLY, you weren’t in office to vote against it AND you have voted to fund it every single time.

38.) I Have Always Supported Universal Health Care – NOT EXACTLY, your plan leaves us all to pay for the 15,000, 000 who don’t have to buy it.

The Girl Scouts’ New Radicalism

Marcia Segelstein – 7/1/2008

The Girl Scouts of the USA have been on a steady, well-documented leftward slide for many years. (More on that later.) But this summer, the organization is about to take a giant leap even further in that direction.

The GSUSA is introducing a new “Girl Scout Leadership Experience,” essentially a new curriculum, titled “Journeys.” The first series of books, one for every level of scouting, will be released this summer called “It’s Your World – Change It.” As you may have guessed from the title, it’s all about girls “taking action.”

In the words of the Girl Scouts’ literature, the mission is for girls to “lead with courage, confidence, and character to make the world a better place.” Sounds innocuous enough. But the GSUSA leadership has some specific ideas about what exactly “making the world a better place” means.

For example, seventh- and eighth-grade cadettes will participate in an eight-session “Journey” called “aMaze,” in which “girls create ‘peace kits’ and learn how to create more peace in the world, one relationship at a time.” It sounds sweet, but is there a lesson in there about peace often coming with a price?

The “Journey” for the oldest Girl Scouts is called “Your Voice, Your World: The Power of Advocacy.” In it, “girls explore the rich and global history of women’s advocacy efforts and engages girls to become advocates in their communities.” Advocates for what, you might well wonder.

Many adults associated with the Girl Scouts have expressed serious concerns about this new curriculum. Promoting social activism, emphasizing the power of self, and jumping on the bandwagon of politically correct causes like global warming are further evidence to them of the organization’s ever-growing radicalism.The blueprint for this new curriculum came from the Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus-Pine Council, which decided they needed to be “re-founded.” To oversee the process, they naturally hired facilitators — in this case, from the Ashland Institute, a consulting group with a distinctly New Age bent.

The Board of Directors and the Arizona Cactus-Pine Council went into a special retreat. After engaging in a “collective reflective process called Open Space,” they decided that some radical changes were in order. According to their own online material, “We are living in a crisis of the spirit in a war-torn world.” The literature speaks of female empowerment. It asks, “Could the Girl Scouts help birth the quality of women’s leadership that the world so desperately needs today?”

It continues: “She [Tamara Woodbury, executive director of the Cactus-Pine Council] knew the time had come for a feminine approach to leadership in the world. What better place than the Girl Scouts to help land the possibility — but how to do it in a feminine way?” I really have no clue how Ms. Woodbury would define a “feminine approach to leadership in the world,” and can’t think why world leadership needs to be approached from a feminine or masculine perspective. Unless, of course, one has a radical feminist point of view.

So the Arizona Cactus-Pine Council forged ahead to find a place where “preteens and teens learn to hear and trust their own inner guidance.” As a Christian, I look to God for guidance, and pray that my children do, too. “Inner guidance” sounds way too much like “do your own thing,” or “follow your heart,” rather than “do the right thing.” In fact, the online literature suggests just that: “Juliette Low [founder of the Girl Scouts] might say to us today, ‘Follow my spirit, not my footsteps. Lead from the heart into the unknown.'” An interesting place to want to take teenagers.

Here’s one of the Girl Scouts’ new values: “Girls learn to quiet themselves, taking ‘full stop moments’ where they can connect with a silence that is perfect and pure, an internal blank canvas….The girls ‘find their own compass’ through a model that starts looking within to find their purpose, values and vision and ends with clear strategies, action and planning.”

In case you weren’t already clear on this, back in 1995, the Girl Scouts made it optional to include the word “God” in their official “promise.” So it shouldn’t be a great surprise that now girls are supposed to look within, discover a blank canvas, and find their own values. This isn’t God-optional. This is anti-God.

Here’s “The Girl Scout Promise,” according to the GSUSA website:

“On my honor, I will try: to serve God* and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law.”

The asterisk is explained at the bottom of the page: “The word ‘God’ can be interpreted in a number of ways, depending on one’s spiritual beliefs. When reciting the Girl Scout Promise, it is okay to replace the word ‘God’ with whatever word your spiritual beliefs dictate.”

That’s right. Go right ahead and define “God” however you like. Telling girls to look inside themselves for direction, especially teenage girls, is like advising them to wear a blindfold while driving. So — to be clear — along with political correctness, the Girl Scouts have now fully embraced moral relativism.

But getting back to being anti-God, there is the matter of the “Covenant of the Goddess.” It’s a Wiccan website which, among other things, describes their awards program. There’s the “Over the Moon Award” for ages 8-11 and the “Hart and Crescent Award” for ages 12-18. The awards are offered “to any young person…who is a member of any nature-oriented religion (Wicca, Druid, Asatru, Native American, etc.).” What does this have to with the Girl Scouts? The Girl Scouts recognize these awards, which may be worn on the Girl Scout uniform.

Criticism of the Girl Scouts is not new. A few years ago, Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote a piece for National Review Online called “The Cookie Crumbles.” Here are some highlights:

“Exercises [from a Senior Scout manual] include working through how the Girl Scout Promise and Law relate to such situations as ‘Suppporting a decision to pull a life-support system from a dying relative’ and ‘Ending a pregnancy.’ Some activities ‘you can do as a Girl Scout to address contemporary issues’ include ‘organiz[ing] an event to make people aware of gender bias’ or ‘help[ing] organize an Earth Day celebration.”

She cites the 1997 book On My Honor: Lesbians Reflect on Their Scouting Experience as being “filled with coming-of-age stories sparked by gay encounters in the Girl Scouts.” The book includes an essay titled “All I Really Need to Know About Being a Lesbian I Learned at Girl Scout Camp.” According to Lopez, “staffers writing in the book claim that roughly one in three of the Girls Scouts’ paid professional staff is lesbian.”

Then there is the “cozy relationship,” as columnist John Leo put it, between Planned Parenthood and a Girl Scout council in Waco, Texas. He wrote, “The council gave a ‘woman of distinction’ award to the local chief of Planned Parenthood, who runs an abortion clinic in Waco….The [same] council also endorsed and helped to staff Planned Parenthood’s ‘Nobody’s Fool,’ an annual half-day sex-education program…offering sympathetic treatment of abortion, masturbation, and homosexuality.” Only after protests did the council withdraw their endorsement of the sex-ed program.

It turns out that other Girl Scout councils in Nevada and Connecticut also had relationships with Planned Parenthood. And, according to Concerned Women for America, one Girl Scout leadership manual “gives visits to health clinics like Planned Parenthood as an acceptable option for Brownie troops. Brownies are for girls six to eight years old.”

In 1995, when “God” became optional in the Girl Scouts’ promise, a group of parents in Ohio had had enough. Disillusioned with the increasingly secular leanings of the Girl Scouts, they started their own organization with about 100 members. American Heritage Girls today has chapters in 34 states, with over 6,500 members.

Check out their website to see if there’s a chapter near you. And if there isn’t, they’ll help you start one of your own.

After ten years as a producer for CBS News, forty-something years as an Episcopalian, and fifteen years as a mother, Marcia Segelstein considers herself a reluctant rebel against the mainstream media, the Episcopal Church (and others which make up the rules instead of obeying them), and the decaying culture her children witness every day. Her pieces have been published in “First Things,” “Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity,” and “BreakpointOnline,” and she is a contributing editor for Salvo magazine.

In his book, “The Clash of Orthodoxies”, Princeton professor Robert George writes that matrimonial law reflects a moral judgment. That judgment is that marriage is inherently heterosexual, monogamous, and permanent – a union of one man and one woman. This judgment is based on both the biblical and natural law understandings – that marriage is a two-in-one flesh communion of persons. This communion is consummated and actualized sexually.

That is, marriage is made real by acts that are reproductive, whether or not these acts result in children. They unite the spouses as a single procreative unit. This organic unity is achieved even by infertile couples. Only a mated pair can be a complete organism capable of human procreation.

By contrast, homosexual acts cannot be procreative and cannot unite people organically. As a result, these acts cannot be marital, which means relationships integrated around them cannot be marriages. In other words, same-sex partners are physically incapable of marriage; it takes a man and a woman to become “one flesh.”

I can already hear the arguments your secular neighbors will make: “Okay, that’s your definition of marriage. Why should your views be imposed on everybody else?”

That is when we have to be ready with additional, non-religious arguments for traditional marriage. For instance, if we expand the meaning of marriage to include same-sex partnerships, on what grounds could we legitimately oppose marriages between three or more people. or weddings between siblings?

Remember, we are not just defending the Christian view of marriage. Since the beginning of recorded history, virtually every society and every major religion has revered and protected traditional marriage. Why? It is the institution that produces, nurtures, protects, and civilizes children. And marriage is the cornerstone of society’s foundational institution: the family.

If the proponents of same-sex “marriage” succeed in foisting it on America, marriage itself would be reduced to nothing more than a legal contract between two (or more) people. True marriage would be abolished, and the damage to our society would be incalculable.

These are the arguments we all need to learn to defend traditional, true marriage, particularly in those states where constitutional amendments are on the ballot this fall.

It is all about equal rights, the gay “marriage” lobby keeps telling us. We just want the right to marry, like everyone else. That is what they are telling us. But that is not what they mean. If same-sex “marriage” becomes the law of the land, we can expect massive persecution of the Church.

We need to understand that legalizing same-sex ‘marriage’ is not a stand-alone policy.Once governments assert that same-sex unions are the equivalent of marriage, those governments must defend and enforce a whole host of other social changes.

The bad news is these changes affect other liberties we take for granted, such as religious freedom and private property rights. Several recent cases give us a sobering picture of what we can expect if we do not actively embrace – and even promote – same-sex “marriage.”

For instance, a Methodist retreat center recently refused to allow two lesbian couples to use a campground pavilion for a civil union ceremony. The state of New Jersey punished the Methodists by revoking the center’s tax-exempt status – a vindictive attack on the Methodists’ religious liberty.

In Massachusetts, where judges imposed gay marriage a few years ago, Catholic Charities was ordered to accept homosexual couples as candidates for adoption. Rather than comply with an order that would be harmful to children, Catholic Charities closed down its adoption program.

California public schools have been told they must be “gay friendly. But it will not stop with public schools. Just north of the border in Quebec, the government told a Mennonite school that it must conform to provincial law regarding curriculum – a curriculum that teaches children that homosexuality is a valid lifestyle. How long will it be before the U.S. government goes after private schools?

Even speaking out against homosexuality can get you fired. Crystal Dixon, an associate vice president at the University of Toledo, was fired after writing an opinion piece in the “Toledo Free Press” in support of traditional marriage . . . fired – for exercising her First Amendment rights!

Promoters of same-sex “marriage” seem to go out of their way to target Christian businesses and churches. Their goal is not the right to “marry,” but to punish anyone who disagrees with them.

Clearly, there is a spiritual battle going on here: Christians are under attack because they are a public witness to the fact that a holy God created us male and female, and we will always put obedience to Him and His laws above obedience to any earthly demand for loyalty.

The coming persecution of Christians is one more reason why we need to get involved with efforts to pass laws at the state and federal level defining marriage as a legal relationship between one man and one woman. We must protect, not only genuine marriage, but also many of the freedoms we now take for granted: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom to use private property the way we see fit – all are under threat.

And we must tell our friends and neighbors why gay “marriage” is not just about equality: It is about forcing religious believers to accept the validity of the homosexual lifestyle – or else!